Basketball

The local basketball community continues to make sure that Rodney Frazier, the slain Richmond High point guard, is not forgotten. Last week, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and some of his players attended the Oilers’ home opener and offered encouraging words to Rodney’s teammates beforehand.

On Thursday, there will be a brief ceremony to honor Rodney and show support for the Richmond team and coaches before a game with Fairfield at the Vontoure Spartan Classic at De La Salle. “We can’t let Rodney become ‘just another statistic.’ We truly are all in this together,” wrote De La Salle coach Frank Allocco in an email. Allocco was a speaker at a peace rally in Richmond to honor Frazier last month. Several local basketball teams showed attended the rally.

With basketball season only a couple months away, tournaments are beginning to announce their schedules. Two big ones came in today.

The NorCal Tip Off Classic, now in its eighth year, has a great slate of games all day and a particularly intriguing headliner. Bishop O’Dowd, led by Ivan Rabb, will face Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas (Nev.) and the frontcourt combo of 7-foot Stephen Zimmerman and 6-foot-9 Chase Jeter. Rabb, Zimmerman and Jeter are considered top 10 national prospects in the class of 2015.

Bishop O’Dowd High’s Ivan Rabb has made his second USA men’s basketball squad in as many years.

Rabb was named to the U17 national team on Tuesday and will compete at the FIBA World Championships in Dubai from Aug. 8-16. He is one of nine players on the 12-man roster that also made last year’s U16 squad. That team captured the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship.

All 12 CIF state basketball title games scheduled for this weekend will be televised live by Comcast SportsNet.

The Salesian girls (Open Division), Bishop O’Dowd boys (Open Division), Monte Vista boys (Division I), Moreau Catholic boys (Division IV) and St. Joseph Notre Dame boys (Division V) all will be playing for state titles at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. The television schedule for those games is as follows. The games will also be streamed on the CIF website.

The Monte Vista High boys basketball team has decided to stay in Division I for the upcoming Northern California regional playoffs rather than opt up to the Open Division.

The Mustangs, who played in and won their first NCS title since 2009 Friday night, didn’t meet the qualifying criteria that would have automatically put them in the running for a spot in the Open Division. But as one of the top squads in Northern California, Monte Vista had the opportunity to opt up to the premier division and hope to be selected. After the NCS championship win over Freedom, head coach Nick Jones said that he would let the players make the decision.

The team met Saturday morning, and the Mustangs announced their decision on their Twitter account, posting “Monte Vista will not petition to join the open division of NorCal’s. They will instead pursue a D1 state title.”

Just a reminder: If you don’t already have a ticket to tonight’s Monte Vista vs. De La Salle basketball game, you’re not getting in. The 7 p.m. game between the two teams tied for first place in the East Bay Athletic League sold out yesterday. But you’re not completely out of luck. The game will be streamed live by delasalletv.com.

The annual MLK Classic at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley is less than two weeks away, and features a great lineup, as usual.

10:30 a.m.: Castro Valley vs. St.Mary’s -Berkeley

12:15 p.m.: El Cerrito vs. Sacred Heart Cathedral-S.F.

2 p.m.: Newark Memorial vs. Jesuit

3:45 p.m.: Capital Christian vs. Bishop O’Dowd

5:45 p.m.: Long Beach Poly vs. De La Salle

7:30 p.m.: Salesian vs. Sacramento

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The marquee matchup is looking like the late afternoon game between Bishop O’Dowd and Capital Christian. O’Dowd is No. 5 in Cal-Hi Sports’ latest state rankings and Capital Christian is No. 9, making them the two highest ranked NorCal squads. The Dragons feature 6-foot-10 Ivan Rabb, one of the hottest junior prospects in the country. Capital Christian is 14-2 and led by Michigan-bound D.J. Wilson.